App connecting patients to doctors, hospitals via phone

What about getting help via your phone? Well, you can now be able to access doctors online or chat with General Practitioners, specialists and have a consultation with someone via your phone.

That is exactly the service BYON8 app is providing by going beyond traditional healthcare by digitising access to healthcare people.

Banking on Artificial Intelligence, the app not only connects patients to doctors but also connects them to physical facilities across the country in case they need any lab tests done or medication.

With a subscription service for Sh500 per month, you will be able to get all the outpatient services you need and be able to interact with the private sector facilities and doctors.

“This is hopefully something you will like and find convenient and affordable for you your family, if you don’t have an insurance cover and you are looking at an alternative this could be an option,” BYON8 CEO and Co-Founder Josef Murad says.

“Instead of taking a matatu and sitting in the queues in the hospital waiting for the doctor, you can immediately see someone on your phone and from there we connect you to physical facilities across the country,” Murad says.

He says the entire system is being run by our artificial intelligence, adding that the medical AI is roughly 90 per cent accurate in primary care diagnostics.

Instead of Googling your symptoms, you simply go to the App and say how you are feeling, say you have a headache and it asks you symptoms and gives you recommendations.

Murad says building this medical AI seemed like a low-hanging fruit at least looking at the problems across the world right now in healthcare.

According to the World Health Organisation, by 2030, there is going to be a shortage of 10 million health professionals.

Murad says that is a massive number and it might not be possible for the countries to hire the required number of doctors and nurses hence the need to think about what other alternative solutions are there that can automate parts of the healthcare system.

The service currently targets businesses as subscription service where you pay per month per employee as a fee and you are provided with all the outpatient services that you need.

“We are piloting and starting a retail subscription in collaboration with Safaricom to launch by the end of the month for individuals so you can sign up from around Sh500 per month and get access to the services,” Murad says.

In addition, BYOB8 recently launched a pilot in Murang’a to increase access to healthcare and public healthcare system and build a system that makes it more affordable for everyone to access primary care.

In partnership with Murang’a County Government, the company is setting up healthcare stations tablets where people who don’t have smartphones can sit down and interact with the doctor through these stations, especially in dispensaries in rural areas where there are no doctors.

The patients can come and talk to a doctor through the connection online.

The county has provided an internet connection via Safaricom and Starlink.

If successful, the plan is to scale up the initiative into other counties.

“We are focusing on people who don’t necessarily have the phones or the tools like smartphones to access doctors and we have seen grandparents are getting a chance to talk to a doctor,” Murad says.

He however acknowledges that there are challenges with network and electricity but from a patient perceptive the project has been a success. The project has so far been launched in 35 health facilities in the county.